Glad to see someone mention Altered Carbon. Seems to get overlooked on Booktube. It’s a really gritty noir style cyberpunk/ detective story. The second book in the series “Broken Angels” is completely different, but also worth reading It’s more military sci-fi.
Agreed on Altered Carbon. It's lurid, violent and has morally grey characters as all good cyberpunk should be and have. Does its own thing from Neuromancer and stays original. Have his 'Market Forces' to read next.
I thought the Takeshi Kovacs books got better with each new book, actually. I also enjoyed the Land Fit for Heroes trilogy and Black Man (Thirteen in the US) but didn't care for Market Forces. And he's kind of gone far down the male fantasy rabbit hole now: Thin Air was pretty awful.
have a read of Frank Herbert's "Hellstroms Hive". it has slightly dated but the hive sections are very thought provoking. though nightmares of "stumps" may occur lol
1.) Brain Wave, by Poul Anderson 2.) Blind Lake, by Robert Charles Wilson 3.) Roadside Picnic, by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky 4.) Blood Music, by Greg Bear 5.) The Santaroga Barrier, by Frank Herbert
@@joemagarac405 I also didn't read a better one of his yet although I already read a couple. Maybe "His Masters Voice" will surprise me :D but I agree, (almost) all of his work is great
Hope you enjoy Annihilation. The book has a much more interesting, mysterious, weird feel than the movie. (I did not like the movie because it strayed too far from the book)
Galapagos was the first novel I read by Vonnegut. I just loved it and then read all his novels. When I saw that the Library of America had a sale on a collection of his novels, I quickly purchased it for only $80! One of the best novelists ever!
Wonderful list, Jonathan. I loved Annihilation and am reading Authority (book 2) now. Dawn is on my shelf, but I haven't read it yet, but loved Clay's Ark from Butler. One other mention: The Carpet Makers, by Andreas Eschbach - a galaxy-spanning, epic tale of revenge. It really stays with you.
I've been telling all my family and friends who read about Vandermeer. Southern Reach trilogy blew me away. Cixin Liu's The Three Body Problem trilogy is also really unique currently finishing Death's End.
Regarding Kurt Vonnegut: was published under title " First and Last". I can easily skip "First". The last one is a must. It's ONLY 1/3 or half. I bet if Vonnegut finished it would be AAA
So many books, so little time. An interesting list of books I've not read - although, worth noting, that Altered Carbon, was the basis for a very good Netflix mini-series. Thank you for your recommendations.
I might join you on the Annihilation journey, but you have me intrigued by some of the other books on this list, "Dawn", and "More than Human", specifically. I've read the others, and agree with you, although most Vonnegut had that effect, so couldn't tell you how long I was haunted by "Galapagos". Thanks for the recommendations!
Annihilation is an excellent read and quite different from the film. I would advise, if you’ll permit, to read the whole trilogy back to back as they are a single cohesive whole and were published, I believe in the same 12 months. But I hope you really really like it.
"Blindsight" is so freaking good. Definitely gets stuck in your mind pretty much forever. One that I can mention is "Parable of the Sower", waaaay too relatable kind of apocalypse. Uff, "Annihiliation" is in my list that goes something like "posmodernity has allowed some elements of scifi into literary/mainstream fiction which means there is a lot of bad scifi showing up in the fancy hallways".
Dawn: You did a great job with the premise . The problem I had with the story was that I never really connected with Lilith. Throughout the book the aliens told her what they were going to do, and her reaction was always "Whooooo?!", "Whaaaat?!?!". Bloodchild was a better read for me. Southern Reach Trilogy was very good. Great content.
I've been fitting Vonnegut books in between Sun Eater books and just finished Breakfast of Champions. I went back to your tier list and see it way down the bottom. I was laughing all the way through. The funny thing was, because I use an e-reader and so don't see the cover and title whenever I pick up the book, I thought I was reading God Bless You Mr Rosewater. Not until I was getting it onto my Hardcover page that I found my mind had been scrambled. Sun Eater: got through Kingdoms of Death with my soul intact. What a trauma. The previous book made Hadrian shine like the universe's hero, KoD crushed him. Vonnegut was very cheery-uppy by comparison.
Haha those are 2 of my favourites and a good combo. I like everything that Vonnegut wrote so even the books on the lower tiers I still thought were good!
@@WordsinTime i think you will find it shares a bit with Dawn, in that its primarily a dystopian 'first contact' story of sorts about the nature of consciousness. i read it a year or so ago now, and i still think about it. its one that completely caught me off guard too when i got into it, was not expecting it to hit so deep
The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff, written by Ted Sturgeon is a very worthwhile and rewarding read imo. It demonstrated how SF had grown up and could have both fantastic ideas and great story telling. P.S. Brightside Crossing by Alan E. Nourse is another work that sticks in my mind. Just thinking about it makes me hot and thirsty! lol
@@WordsinTime Brightside Crossing is in the public domain, at Project Gutenberg and the internet archive where all the back issues of Galaxy Magazines are in public domain, even the issues with Dune, IIRC! UA-cam didn't like me linking to it earlier, but the Project Gutenberg one is easy to search for. For Galaxy Magazine it helps to know what issue you are looking for, and how to use the viewer they have. The zoom feature works!
Three cheers for mentioning Theodore Sturgeon's "More than human!" Very thought provoking and quite well written, in my opinion. Sturgeon at his "soft" Science Fiction best!
@@RedFuryBooks Dawn is interesting. I didn’t love all of it but it had strong aspects. I recently finished Annihilation and it was a 7.5/10 for me. I liked it but didn’t love it.
I read and enjoyed all these books. Another good one by Sturgeon is Godbody. It's been a very long time since I read it, but back in the day I put it up there with my all time favorites. Anyway, good vid!
Woohoo! Annihilation for the win! I devoured the entire series earlier this year and it's one of the ones that still has me thinking. I do think The Southern Reach is better read in total. I'd add A Canticle for Liebowitz, Anathem, and the Three Body Problem as thinking novels for me. Embarrassingly, I have read none of the books on your list. 😬 😳
galapados isn't one of my faves by vonnegut either but I appreciated it for its unblinking look at the nature of human nature. I ended up DNFing altered carbon when an amazon reader pointed out a huge mistake the author made that I hadn't even noticed. But since I've forgotten what the mistake was I may go back and finish it!⚛😀
For sci-fi books that stick with you long after reading them, I'd have to say Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash was that for me. But then, most of his books stick with me in that way.
I just finished "blindsight" and couldnt tell you what happened in the last 100 pages. The whole book was a blur of boredom with a smattering of interesting ideas, just watch a spoiler filled review and save yourself some time and money
Good pick!! I really enjoyed the Southern Reach trilogy. Weird Sci-Fi and cosmic horror at its finest! I haven’t read (yet) any of the books you mention but they’re all in my TBT now! Thanks! Books I can’t stop thinking about: Solaris, A Canticle for Liebovitz, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, The Forever War
Finished 2 out of 5 and DNFed Altered Carbon. It seemed like gratuitous violence to me and I could not bring myself to give a damn who killed him and why. A very long time since I read Dawn and mostly was not enthusiastic about it. I liked *More Than Human* .
Started Altered Carbon this past weekend when I found a copy at my local coffee shop's take-one-leave-one shelf and I'm in love. Reconciling the advancement of technology with stipulations of religion, what happens to the relationships of people who have been married 250+ years, losing your body like one might lose their house in an economic crisis. All wrapped up in this dark gumshoe plotline 🤌🏼 Another great list!
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I just started reading Hyperion, I like it very much and think that this book will stick with me for some time into the future.
@@gmcenroe One of my favourites! I hope you enjoy the Hyperion Cantos!
"Dawn" is incredible. Butler was a legend. In my top 5.
That’s great!
Glad to see someone mention Altered Carbon. Seems to get overlooked on Booktube. It’s a really gritty noir style cyberpunk/ detective story. The second book in the series “Broken Angels” is completely different, but also worth reading It’s more military sci-fi.
I’ll have to check out the sequel!
Agreed on Altered Carbon. It's lurid, violent and has morally grey characters as all good cyberpunk should be and have. Does its own thing from Neuromancer and stays original. Have his 'Market Forces' to read next.
I thought the Takeshi Kovacs books got better with each new book, actually. I also enjoyed the Land Fit for Heroes trilogy and Black Man (Thirteen in the US) but didn't care for Market Forces. And he's kind of gone far down the male fantasy rabbit hole now: Thin Air was pretty awful.
yeah, blindsight is one of the few sci-fi books that really are worthy of the moment we're in...really great
I’m glad it resonated with you!
have a read of Frank Herbert's "Hellstroms Hive". it has slightly dated but the hive sections are very thought provoking. though nightmares of "stumps" may occur lol
Interesting! I’m currently reading Children of Dune.
Blindsight is one of my favorites, too. Read it two times and can't stop thinking about it.
Awesome! I’m looking forward to re-reading it one day.
@@WordsinTime How about Echopraxia? It's still on my "to read" shelf...
@@szymonskowronski5689 Same!
Asimov's Foundation series keeps coming up im my mind lately.
Lots of great ideas in that one!
Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End" has stunned everyone I know who has read it.
Yes, one of my all-time favourite books!
1.) Brain Wave, by Poul Anderson
2.) Blind Lake, by Robert Charles Wilson
3.) Roadside Picnic, by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
4.) Blood Music, by Greg Bear
5.) The Santaroga Barrier, by Frank Herbert
@@berserkley Great picks! I’ve read and enjoyed all of these authors, although I haven’t read those particular books by Anderson, Wilson and Herbert.
I think Solaris by Stanislaw Lem will be in my head forever haha, also was the first Sci-fi novel I read and i'm chasing that feeling since 😅
One of my all-time favourites!
@@WordsinTime just too good
All of Lem’s works are amazing but Solaris is the best
@@joemagarac405 I also didn't read a better one of his yet although I already read a couple. Maybe "His Masters Voice" will surprise me :D but I agree, (almost) all of his work is great
Really loved CJ Cherryh's Hunter of Worlds.
@@davidoran123 Nice! I’ve only read Kesrith. I’ll look that one up.
Wow. "More than Human." It made a big impact on me when I read it in my college years. I agree that it sticks with a person.
I'm glad it resonated with you too!
Hope you enjoy Annihilation. The book has a much more interesting, mysterious, weird feel than the movie. (I did not like the movie because it strayed too far from the book)
Interesting! Looking forward to it!
Getting back into sci-fi again also means getting back into your videos! Great stuff =D
Haha glad to have you! 🤝
Galapagos was the first novel I read by Vonnegut. I just loved it and then read all his novels. When I saw that the Library of America had a sale on a collection of his novels, I quickly purchased it for only $80! One of the best novelists ever!
That’s awesome!
Wonderful list, Jonathan. I loved Annihilation and am reading Authority (book 2) now. Dawn is on my shelf, but I haven't read it yet, but loved Clay's Ark from Butler. One other mention: The Carpet Makers, by Andreas Eschbach - a galaxy-spanning, epic tale of revenge. It really stays with you.
That’s great! I read The Carpet Makers this year and it was a 10/10 for me!
I've been telling all my family and friends who read about Vandermeer. Southern Reach trilogy blew me away. Cixin Liu's The Three Body Problem trilogy is also really unique currently finishing Death's End.
That’s great! And yes, the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy is 🤯
Awesome video Jonathan! Altered Carbon has been on my list for a while. I loved the show!
Cheers Chas! It’s great, but violent!
One that has always been haunting to me has been Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow. Years later I’m still thinking about it.
@@MrRomanGuy It’s on my TBR, I need to get to it!
Regarding Kurt Vonnegut: was published under title " First and Last". I can easily skip "First". The last one is a must. It's ONLY 1/3 or half. I bet if Vonnegut finished it would be AAA
@@cathyharris-cz5tu interesting!
So many books, so little time. An interesting list of books I've not read - although, worth noting, that Altered Carbon, was the basis for a very good Netflix mini-series. Thank you for your recommendations.
Haha yes it’s a never ending battle with the TBR ⚔️ 📚
I might join you on the Annihilation journey, but you have me intrigued by some of the other books on this list, "Dawn", and "More than Human", specifically. I've read the others, and agree with you, although most Vonnegut had that effect, so couldn't tell you how long I was haunted by "Galapagos". Thanks for the recommendations!
Nice, I’m looking forward to it! And I hope you enjoy the others!
Annihilation is an excellent read and quite different from the film. I would advise, if you’ll permit, to read the whole trilogy back to back as they are a single cohesive whole and were published, I believe in the same 12 months. But I hope you really really like it.
Nice! Thanks for the info!
You must also try Alien from earth by sobers rodrigues. It's very creative story.
I’ll look it up!
Afterburn by D Andrews has a very protracted and intense torture session in the beginning of the book that is somewhat haunting
@@rsweetsn Sounds intense!
Great list, all ones I want to check out!
Hope you enjoy!
"Blindsight" is so freaking good. Definitely gets stuck in your mind pretty much forever. One that I can mention is "Parable of the Sower", waaaay too relatable kind of apocalypse.
Uff, "Annihiliation" is in my list that goes something like "posmodernity has allowed some elements of scifi into literary/mainstream fiction which means there is a lot of bad scifi showing up in the fancy hallways".
Uh oh haha
Dawn: You did a great job with the premise . The problem I had with the story was that I never really connected with Lilith. Throughout the book the aliens told her what they were going to do, and her reaction was always "Whooooo?!", "Whaaaat?!?!".
Bloodchild was a better read for me.
Southern Reach Trilogy was very good.
Great content.
Thanks! I’ll have to check out Bloodchild.
Loved annihilation. It's full on eerie.
Nice! I’m looking forward to it!
Adding them all to my tbr
Nice! Hope you enjoy!
Hey I have actually read some of these. We are both reading Annihilation this month!
Perfect timing! 🤜 🤛
I've been fitting Vonnegut books in between Sun Eater books and just finished Breakfast of Champions. I went back to your tier list and see it way down the bottom. I was laughing all the way through. The funny thing was, because I use an e-reader and so don't see the cover and title whenever I pick up the book, I thought I was reading God Bless You Mr Rosewater. Not until I was getting it onto my Hardcover page that I found my mind had been scrambled.
Sun Eater: got through Kingdoms of Death with my soul intact. What a trauma. The previous book made Hadrian shine like the universe's hero, KoD crushed him. Vonnegut was very cheery-uppy by comparison.
Haha those are 2 of my favourites and a good combo. I like everything that Vonnegut wrote so even the books on the lower tiers I still thought were good!
one book i cant stop thinking about, is The Mountain in the Sea. if you havent read it yet, i cannot recommend it enough
@@LevelUpYourFandom I own it but haven’t read it yet. Looking forward to it!
@@WordsinTime i think you will find it shares a bit with Dawn, in that its primarily a dystopian 'first contact' story of sorts about the nature of consciousness. i read it a year or so ago now, and i still think about it. its one that completely caught me off guard too when i got into it, was not expecting it to hit so deep
The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff, written by Ted Sturgeon is a very worthwhile and rewarding read imo. It demonstrated how SF had grown up and could have both fantastic ideas and great story telling. P.S. Brightside Crossing by Alan E. Nourse is another work that sticks in my mind. Just thinking about it makes me hot and thirsty! lol
@@SlackerBabel Haha I’ll have to look it up!
@@WordsinTime Brightside Crossing is in the public domain, at Project Gutenberg and the internet archive where all the back issues of Galaxy Magazines are in public domain, even the issues with Dune, IIRC! UA-cam didn't like me linking to it earlier, but the Project Gutenberg one is easy to search for. For Galaxy Magazine it helps to know what issue you are looking for, and how to use the viewer they have. The zoom feature works!
Three cheers for mentioning Theodore Sturgeon's "More than human!" Very thought provoking and quite well written, in my opinion. Sturgeon at his "soft" Science Fiction best!
I’m glad you love it too!
No Permutation City?
I better call Jonathan and let him know his account has been hacked. Somebody is posting cheap fakes of him.
Permutation City is always an implied recommendation haha
Vast by Linda Nagata got stuck in my head in 1998 and it’s still there, living rent free. Such a clever story.
I’ll look it up!
Dawn is on my TBR, with a lot of Butler's other works! I hope you enjoy Annihilation. I think I'm the only person that didn't love that book!
@@RedFuryBooks Dawn is interesting. I didn’t love all of it but it had strong aspects. I recently finished Annihilation and it was a 7.5/10 for me. I liked it but didn’t love it.
I read and enjoyed all these books. Another good one by Sturgeon is Godbody. It's been a very long time since I read it, but back in the day I put it up there with my all time favorites. Anyway, good vid!
Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll check it out!
Woohoo! Annihilation for the win! I devoured the entire series earlier this year and it's one of the ones that still has me thinking. I do think The Southern Reach is better read in total. I'd add A Canticle for Liebowitz, Anathem, and the Three Body Problem as thinking novels for me. Embarrassingly, I have read none of the books on your list. 😬 😳
I’m looking forward to Annihilation! I’ve read 2 of those 3 but there’s a couple of Stephenson books I want to get to before Anathem haha
@@WordsinTime Math monks! How could any Stephenson come before math monks??
@@cherylmccutchan1282 Those math monks are too wordy!
@@WordsinTime They are absolutely very wordy. I can't believe you don't want to read 100 pages on Platonic idealism theory.😅
@@cherylmccutchan1282 😵💫
galapados isn't one of my faves by vonnegut either but I appreciated it for its unblinking look at the nature of human nature. I ended up DNFing altered carbon when an amazon reader pointed out a huge mistake the author made that I hadn't even noticed. But since I've forgotten what the mistake was I may go back and finish it!⚛😀
Haha give it another try!
Much preferred the film Annihilation to the book if I'm honest. Be interested to here what you think.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed!
For sci-fi books that stick with you long after reading them, I'd have to say Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash was that for me. But then, most of his books stick with me in that way.
I enjoyed Snow Crash. I need to read more Stephenson!
I just finished "blindsight" and couldnt tell you what happened in the last 100 pages. The whole book was a blur of boredom with a smattering of interesting ideas, just watch a spoiler filled review and save yourself some time and money
@@EpicDoom80 It’s a polarizing one. I liked it but that’s okay, I can see why it might not work for everyone.
Even though I had to skip to the end 76% through The Wolf in the Whale stuck with me.
Interesting!
@@WordsinTime and I'll never know what happened to her fucking brother 😪
Nuts. More books I have to buy.
Haha I’m here to help 📚
Annihilation: I liked both the movie and the book. But they differ significantly.
Interesting!
Yes! Annihilation!
Let’s go!
@@WordsinTime just finished the southern reach trilogy a couple of weeks ago, stoked he's publishing a 4th novel
Annihilation?
But it was soooooo close.
🙉
Good pick!!
I really enjoyed the Southern Reach trilogy. Weird Sci-Fi and cosmic horror at its finest!
I haven’t read (yet) any of the books you mention but they’re all in my TBT now! Thanks!
Books I can’t stop thinking about:
Solaris, A Canticle for Liebovitz, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, The Forever War
Those are all great choices!
Finished 2 out of 5 and DNFed Altered Carbon. It seemed like gratuitous violence to me and I could not bring myself to give a damn who killed him and why.
A very long time since I read Dawn and mostly was not enthusiastic about it.
I liked *More Than Human* .
Altered Carbon is very violent. I’m glad you liked More Than Human!
@@WordsinTime
Did you ever check out *Daemon & Freedom* by Daniel Suarez? I don't recall your ever saying. I must watch too many booktubers.
@@psikeyhackr6914 I own Daemon and plan to read it later this year!
@@WordsinTime
Daemon & Freedom are actually a single story, it is just spread over two books like Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion.
Started Altered Carbon this past weekend when I found a copy at my local coffee shop's take-one-leave-one shelf and I'm in love. Reconciling the advancement of technology with stipulations of religion, what happens to the relationships of people who have been married 250+ years, losing your body like one might lose their house in an economic crisis. All wrapped up in this dark gumshoe plotline 🤌🏼
Another great list!
That’s a great description of it!